Daily Devotion February 2

February 2: Luke 9:1-6

KJV Key Verse: Luke 9:5
And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.

Devotion:
When Jesus sent out the disciples He equipped them for the work they would be called to do but He also directed them to now dwell on lost causes. Ouch! That just sounds so harsh. You could say that Jesus was calling His disciples to be realists in their ministries in that they were not to hang around if people did not want them there. The same is still very true today.

Does this mean that we walk away from the people that need to hear the Gospel the most? Does this mean we walk away from people just because they swear at us or call us names? Does this mean we turn our backs on people just because they say OMG? No. This passage does not say that! What Jesus said was we should stick to our plan or stick to our guns for a while. Don’t skip from church to church, house to house, group to group just because you think they are not right. Don’t judge others!

What Jesus is saying is that we need to be consistent in our approach but that we must realise when we are not going to make a difference. There should come a point where we do realise that no matter how much more we try, things are not going to change. Maybe the fact that we have sown the seeds is what was required of us. Maybe God just wanted the door to be opened a little to make a change. We cannot hope to understand God’s ways, but as long as we are willing to listen to Him and go where He calls us, then we do know we are making the right difference!

The disciples each had their own way of reaching out to people and their own ways of getting to know people. We are all different too so what one person does will not always work for us. God wants us to be ourselves – being honest and open about who we are and about who God is in our lives. Once we show people God’s love is real and honest, they will be the ones who make the choice to follow Him. But we do need to show people first of all!

Points to Ponder:
Do you feel inadequate?

Did God not make you different?